Bringing Super Roleplayers Together [CORP]

Magical languages

Just moved, haven't unpacked my stuff yet, so I don't have access to Mystic World right now. So, until I can dig it out, please remind me what, if anything, CO lore says about known magical languages--i.e., languages used for arcane rituals and the like.

In additional to Terrestrial staples like Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and Enochian, I'd imagine there'd be some widespread extra-dimensional equivalents--are they named at all, or is it left up to us to make them up?

I haven't been able to find any mention in my books of any particular languages which are innately magical. There really isn't much of a tradition of that for magicians in comics. They usually either don't overtly use words when casting spells, or their incantations are in English (for English-language comics). I would guess that most spells with incantations that people can learn from grimoires are rendered in whatever language was dominant for the casting of magic where and when they were invented. Learning a spell from the antediluvian era when Atlantis dominated the world would likely require knowledge of Atlantean. In fact, the earth-elemental monster called Terrayne was accidentally created when the Demonologist, leader of the supernatural villain team called the Devil's Advocates, botched an Atlantean spell he'd discovered "due to his imperfect knowledge of the Atlantean tongue." (Champions Villains Vol. 3 p. 291, the entry for Terrayne)

Likely historical languages for magic spells could include Arabic, Chinese, Coptic Egyptian, Nahuatl (Aztec), Sanskrit, Sumerian... you get the idea.

As far as extra-dimensional languages which may be used for spells such as those in The Mystic World, if you like you could use hints in the spell descriptions to define said languages. For example, "the Vapors of the Vata" (TMW p. 83) were developed in the group of dimensions called the Storlian Realms, so perhaps the magic of the Realms uses the "Storlian" language.

I have to amend my response above: I found a mention in Hero Games's source book for The Atlantean Age, p. 102, that Atlantean mages cast and wrote spells using a special language called Urlogos. "Learning how to speak and write Urlogos is the foundation of an Atlantean wizard's studies and occupies most of his time during his apprenticeship (and a not inconsiderable amount of time thereafter). Most people can't understand advanced Urlogos when they hear it spoken; its words are obviously words of power, but their very power makes them incomprehensible to someone who's not equipped to wield that power."